24-12-13

West secretly backing al-Qaeda in Syria

An international lawyer says the West is secretly and indirectly supporting al-Qaeda-linked militants in the fight against the Syrian government, Press TV reports.

Pointing to a recent report by French newspaper Le Figaro that after Saudi Arabia, the US was second in line to lead al-Qaeda forces fighting against the Syrian government, Franklin Lamb said on Wednesday that the revelation was “credible.”

“I think that even if we accept that Turkey and Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and I think we must, are overtly supporting al-Qaeda and the terrorist groups, I think the West is doing it indirectly maybe sub-rosa, maybe not totally comfortable with it,” he said.

He added that al-Qaeda had an “enormous fire power” and encouragement to expand fighting against the Syrian government due to the “funding from the West and the [Persian] Gulf” countries.

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011. According to reports, the US and Saudi Arabia, along with their Western and regional allies, are supporting the Takfiri groups operating inside the country.

Around 10,000 of the militants, with many being foreign nationals, are fighting for groups affiliated with al-Qaeda such as the al-Nusra Front and the rest fight for different militant groups.